Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2019/20

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Overview

Since the introduction of the Council Tax Reduction (CTR) Scheme, the Council has made a number of changes which have limited the amount that applicants can receive under the scheme.

In particular, in 2016/17, the Council introduced a 5% minimum contribution towards Council Tax, meaning that some residents who had never had to pay Council Tax before received bills. In 2017/18, the minimum contribution was increased to 15%.

The Council also froze the limits for assessing eligibility for CTR, which has meant that the threshold for qualifying for it has reduced in real terms.

Why are we consulting?

Council Tax collection data and feedback from local organisations and politicians has indicated that the minimum charge is causing hardship for a number of residents. The new administration committed to removing the minimum charge in its election manifesto.

Our preferred option is to remove the 85% limit on Council Tax Reduction, which means that the poorest claimants will not have to make the minimum contribution. In addition, other residents who receive partial Council Tax Reduction will have their bills reduced.

Removing the minimum charge means that qualifying residents will once again be able to have all of their Council Tax paid for by the Council.

The benefits of this are:

It will ease the financial pressure on the borough's most financially hard-pressed residents. We estimate that about 2,500 of the borough's hard-pressed households will benefit

The drawbacks of this are:

The change will cost the Council money by increasing the reductions available to some residents. We estimate that the cost will be about £400,000 per year

Have your say

This consultation is about our proposals for changes to the scheme for 2019/20 and we want your views on these to help us make final decisions.